1. Field of the Invention
Described herein are chimeric antigen receptors (CAR), CAR T cells and methods of making and using CARs and CAR T cells.
2. Description of Related Art
The potency of clinical-grade T cells can be improved by combining gene therapy with immunotherapy to engineer a biologic product with the potential for superior (i) recognition of tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), (ii) persistence after infusion. (iii) potential for migration to tumor sites, and (iv) ability to recycle effector functions within the tumor microenvironment. Such genetic engineering of T cells can be used to redirect the specificity of the cells and to provide therapeutic compositions having antigen-targeted cytotoxic activity. These engineered T-cell composition have been shown to be highly effective for therapeutic intervention in, for example, cancer patients (Jena et al., 2010; Till et al., 2008; Porter et al., 2011; Brentjens et al., 2011; Cooper and Bollard, 2012; Kalos et al., 2011; Kochenderfer et al., 2010; Kochenderfer et al., 2012; Brentjens et al., 2013). There remains a need for CAR polypeptides and CAR-expressing T-cells that are highly specific to antigens, such as protein complexes, that are associated with particular diseased cells, such as cancers and its sub-types.